Mana Neyestani honored for courage in cartooning

Four years after he was jailed in Iran for putting the wrong words in the mouth of a talking cockroach, Mana Neyestani was awarded by 2010 award for courage in editorial cartooning by Cartoonists Rights Network International.

In 2006, Neyestani drew a cartoon depicting a cockroach responding to a question with the word, "Namana, a Turkish Azeri slang phrase meaning, "I don't get it."

Because the cartoon appeared in a government newspaper, Iranian Azeris decided they were being harassed and classed with cockroaches. In ensuing riots, five people were killed, and Neyestani was jailed for two months.

With help from CRNI, Neyestani eventually relocated with his wife, Mansoureh, in Malaysia. He is currently working on a graphic depiction of those two months in an Iranian jail.